The statement that this [US] presence is needed to protect the oil riches of Syria is arrogant. It turns out that they are being protected from Syria itself.
The oil fields in question were traditionally used to meet domestic demands and are too small to be interesting to Washington in terms of profit, journalist and orientalist Andrey Ontikov told RT.
One clue might be in the words of US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who said the purpose of keeping the troops in Syria is to "deny access to [IS] and any other groups that may want to seek that revenue to enable their own malign activities." (emphasis added)
This phrasing is a dead giveaway that the oil gambit is not about IS, but about blocking the government in Damascus from using its own natural resources to rebuild. Already under a blockade by the US and its EU allies, Syria desperately needs the oil to help its people survive the winter. "Malign activities" is a phrase Washington often uses in reference to Iran, a strategic partner and ally of the Syrian government.
If that sounds to you like a policy designed by someone from the Washington establishment, which has dreamed of regime change in Damascus for the past eight years and greeted Trump's decision with wailing and gnashing of teeth, you are not alone. NBC News has even named a possible culprit - retired General Jack Keane, a Fox News military analyst, who they say gave Trump a briefing about the oil fields.
Following the US special forces operation in northwestern Syria, in which Washington claims al-Baghdadi was eliminated, the mutilated body was immediately taken "to a secure facility to confirm his identity with forensic DNA testing," Army General Mike Milley, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news briefing. "The disposal of his remains has been done and is complete and was handled appropriately."Which is nonsense, just as it was with bin Laden. It isn't "Islamic tradition" to bury people at sea:
Just like al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group chief was reportedly given a proper burial at sea in accordance with Islamic tradition, with all Muslim religious rites afforded to him.
Mohammed al-Qubaisi, Dubai's grand mufti, said of Bin Laden's burial: "They can say they buried him at sea, but they cannot say they did it according to Islam. Sea burials are permissible for Muslims in extraordinary circumstances. This is not one of them."Obviously, the UN cannot confirm Baghdadi's death (especially given that the remains are now allegedly somewhere at the bottom of the Mediterranean, or some body of water):
The US President's statement on the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi sounded confident, but the United Nations is still unable to confirm the death of the Islamic State leader for lack of proof, a high-ranking UN official has said.Hasn't stopped them in the past...
The UN Monitoring Team on terrorist groups is going to put questions to the US and other involved parties to clarify the fate of al-Baghdadi, Edmund Fitton-Brown, a British diplomat who coordinates the team, told RIA Novosti news agency.
"All we have so far is the public announcement from the Americans, but it does seem like a very confident announcement. They seem very sure of themselves. They claim that they have verified it... So, I think that should be taken very seriously."
However, Fitton-Brown pointed out that Washington "would be setting themselves up to a considerable embarrassment" if the report on the death of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) chief turns out to be false.
President Trump on Monday afternoon tweeted a photo of the four-legged hero, clad in what appears to be a camouflage harness and with its tongue lolling out of its mouth — belying its US Army-trained ferocity.As for how they were apparently able to verify the DNA, SF spokesman Mustafa Bali that an informant who led them to Baghdadi's location provided them with Baghdadi's underwear and a blood sample. This story keeps on getting better!
"We have declassified a picture of the wonderful dog (name not declassified) that did such a GREAT JOB in capturing and killing the Leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi!" wrote the president.
The pooch — a Belgian Malinois named Conan, according to reports in Newsweek and the Washington Examiner — was unleashed after Baghdadi when the coward fled US troops down a dead-end tunnel late Saturday.
Before Conan could turn the murderous mastermind into a human chew toy, Baghdadi detonated his bomb vest, killing himself and three of his kids, causing a small cave-in — and wounding his furry pursuer.
But amazingly, Conan has already been cleared to return to service, Pentagon officials said Monday.
"The dog is still in theater," said Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a press briefing. "The dog ... performed a tremendous service as they all do in a variety of situations."
Conan was "slightly wounded and fully recovering, but the dog is still in theater, returned to duty with its handler," he added.
At the time, Milley declined to name the canine — saying the Department of Defense was "protecting the dog's identity" — or elaborate on its intended role.
But the Navy SEALs who took down 9/11 engineer Osama bin Laden also had a tail-wagging secret weapon, utilizing another Belgian Malinois named Cairo in the 2011 mission to sniff out potential bombs and, if necessary, attack enemy combatants.
Milley's tight-lipped approach was a common sentiment in Monday's briefing, as few new details about the momentous mission trickled out.
Milley confirmed that photos and video of the raid are going through a "declassification process" for release in the coming days, but declined to reveal exactly what they showed, at what point during the mission they were taken or if any were shot from a camera mounted on the dog.
He similarly refused to elaborate on the nature of ISIS intelligence that was culled from the clandestine lair before it was leveled by American bombs.
Milley did acknowledge that two men were nabbed alive in the raid and are being held in American custody, but declined to offer any clues as to their identity or roles.
According to the Times of London, Qardash had been loyal to Baghdadi, as the pair were held in the Camp Bucca detention centre in Basra, Iraq, after being jailed by US forces over their links to al-Qaeda in 2003, and Baghdadi was even handing more power to Qardash before he died. Fadhel Abo Ragheef, a former security analyst with the Iraqi government, told the Times in August that Baghdadi was "trying to prepare Qardash to lead ISIS in the future."Damian Wilson of RT reminds us:
Researchers at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies also stated that Qardash would take over Daesh's leadership. "Described by some security analysts as cruel and authoritarian yet popular and well-respected among other [Daesh] members, Qardash was responsible for eliminating those who are against al-Baghdadi's style of leadership," the researchers said.
This was an episode that called for restraint, as it is not the first time the death of Al Baghdadi has been announced, only to be later proven wrong. The Guardian had him paralyzed with a severe spinal injury after an airstrike in April 2015, Syrian state TV reported him dead in June 2017, Iranian TV said he was "definitely dead" and the Russians claimed as much again, all in the same month.Previous updates and commentary here:
In July 2017 he was pronounced dead once more, then alive and then, to clear the matter up, a year later, he emerged from obscurity with a new propaganda video.
So, while Trump described watching the fugitive "whimpering and crying and screaming all the way" to his death, why not just hold back a tick until we're offered some more substantial information?
While we do not want to see the sort of televised barbarism that befell Muammar Ghaddafi or Saddam Hussein, some irrefutable proof, shared with the watching world, that the remains are those of Al Baghdadi, would be welcome.
Comment: The other fellow was Jeff Berwick of DollarVigilante.
Kind of a Nothing-Burger. It seems rather obvious that anything incriminating on that island would have been removed long ago. Good for some thrill-seeking, though.
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